Oil rises amid concerns over situation in Gaza, Ukraine

July 22, 2014 - 16:55 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The price of oil rose above $103 a barrel Tuesday, July 22, on persisting jitters over the situation in Gaza and the standoff over the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner in Ukraine, the Associated Press reports.

U.S. benchmark crude for September delivery was up 21 cents to $103.06 a barrel at 0615 GMT in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 91 cents to $102.86 on Monday. The August contract, which expires Tuesday, was up 41 cents at $105.00 a barrel.

Brent crude for September delivery, a benchmark for international oils, gained 3 cents to $107.71 on the ICE exchange in London.

Israel bombed five mosques, a sports stadium and the home of the late Hamas military chief across the Gaza Strip early on Tuesday, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met in Cairo to launch the highest-level push yet to end two weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting. The clashes have claimed at least 570 Palestinian and 29 Israeli lives.

The fighting has added to the risk of instability in the oil-rich Middle East just as tensions have intensified between the West and Russia, a major oil producer, over the Ukraine crisis.